A company is insolvent when it cannot pay all its debts as and when they become due and payable. This is a cash flow test, not just a balance sheet test a company can hold valuable assets and still be insolvent if it cannot pay what is due now.

Voluntary administration is a rescue process. An administrator takes control of the company and investigates it. Creditors then vote on what happens next: end the administration, accept a deed of company arrangement, or wind the company up. Liquidation is the wind-up, assets are sold, claims are checked, and the money is shared out. Administration keeps options open; liquidation closes them.

You complete the prescribed proof of debt form and lodge it with the external administrator, attaching evidence such as invoices, contracts, statements and correspondence. The administrator then adjudicates on it. Poorly evidenced claims are commonly rejected or reduced, so lodge it properly the first time.

Yes. A liquidator can recover unfair preferences, uncommercial transactions, unreasonable director-related transactions and creditor-defeating dispositions where the statutory tests are met. Look-back periods vary, commonly six months for preferences involving unrelated parties, and up to four years or more for related parties. Defences exist, including good faith and running account arguments.

Broadly: secured creditors to the extent of their security, then the liquidator’s costs and remuneration, then priority employee entitlements such as wages, leave and (subject to caps) redundancy, then unsecured creditors sharing rateably. Shareholders rank last and usually receive nothing.

Yes. A court can remove and replace a trustee where the proper administration of the trust requires it, for example conflict of interest, misconduct, incapacity, or a breakdown that leaves the trustee unable to act impartially. The trust deed may also contain a removal power that avoids going to court.

It depends. Where a company acts as trustee the assets belong to the trust, but the trustee’s right of indemnity can be exercised for properly incurred trust liabilities. The answer turns on the trust deed, whether the trustee was validly removed, whether the debts were incurred in the trust’s business, and whether the structure survives challenge.

Yes, wholly or in part. If your claim is rejected you receive written notice, and you generally have a short period, commonly 14 days, to apply to the court to review the decision. These deadlines are strict, so diarise them the day the notice arrives.

Insolvent trading is where a director allows a company to incur a debt while it is already insolvent, or where it becomes insolvent because of that debt, and there were reasonable grounds to suspect insolvency. Directors can be personally liable for the resulting loss. Defences include the safe harbour provisions and reasonable reliance on information.

Very. Statutory demand set-aside applications (21 days), proof of debt reviews, voidable transaction claims and appeals all run on fixed statutory periods, and most cannot be extended once missed. In insolvency, delay almost always costs more than early advice would have.